20th Birthday – but is it a time to celebrate?

Kids for Kids celebrates 20 years of helping the forgotten children of Darfur on 8th March this year – two decades in which we have transformed the lives of over 550,000 people in 105 villages in one of the most inaccessible places in the world. A journey that started with a young boy’s seven-hour walk for water across the deserts of Darfur, to a handpump miles from his home.

Whilst this may seem like a time to celebrate, it is a stark reminder that in Darfur our help is still needed. There are still young children and families with no access to clean, fresh water.

The situation in Darfur is still desperate, inflation has skyrocketed to over 250% and is still rising.

This has put our projects at risk – the cost of implementing our key projects has jumped massively. The need for water has always been a necessity but since the arrival of covid-19 into Darfur, the only way communities can protect themselves is by washing their hands. This means that families need more water than ever to keep their families safe. If there are no water pumps locally this means that more journeys for water are needed – either that or forego the only protection that they have against the virus.

Our team on the ground in Darfur has said that our water projects are falling behind schedule. This is due to the cost of installing water pumps increasing day by day. Some of our villages that we adopted in 2017 were due to have their water pumps installed last year – however, work has slowed as materials, transport costs and labour have all increased astronomically.

The current economic climate in Sudan and the uncertainty of costs has meant that Kids for Kids has had to hold off promising new water pumps to villages in case we cannot deliver – access to fresh clean water should be a given in the 21st century but unfortunately, that’s not the case in many areas of Darfur.

Whilst we will celebrate the change that Kids for Kids has brought about for so many people over the past 20 years – we will remain steadfast in our support for the people of Darfur but we can only do this with your help.

Please will you support Kids for Kids so we can carry on improving the lives of children now and for the children of the future?

To donate to our water projects visit: https://www.kidsforkids.org.uk/shop/donations/water-projects/